Evidence Fibromyalgia Is an Immune Problem

This study demonstrated that fibromyalgia patients have unique immunologic traits – evidence that fibromyalgia may actually have an immunologic basis rather than rheumatologic or neurologic as once thought.

The researchers also developed a novel test protocol, which they suggest may be useful as a tool for diagnosing fibromyalgia.

Background: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a clinical syndrome characterized by chronic pain and allodynia. The diagnosis of FM has been one of exclusion as a test to confirm the diagnosis is lacking.

Recent data highlight the role of the immune system in FM. Aberrant expressions of immune mediators, such as cytokines, have been linked to the pathogenesis and traits of FM. We therefore determined whether cytokine production by immune cells is altered in FM patients by comparing the cellular responses to mitogenic activators of stimulated blood mononuclear cells of a large number of patients with FM to those of healthy matched individuals.

Methods: Plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected from 110 patients with the clinical diagnosis of FM and 91 healthy donors. Parallel samples of PBMC were cultured overnight in medium alone or in the presence of mitogenic activators; PHA or PMA in combination with ionomycin. The cytokine concentrations of IFN-y, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, MIP-1? , MCP-1, and MIP1-? in plasma as well as in cultured supernatants were determined using a multiplex immunoassay using bead array technology.

In contrast, the concentrations of most cytokines were lower in stimulated samples from patients with FM compared to controls. The decreases of cytokine concentrations in patients samples ranged from 1.5-fold for MIP-1? to 10.2-fold for IL-6 in PHA challenges.

In PMA challenges, we observed 1.8 to 4-fold decreases in the concentrations of cytokines in patient samples.

Conclusion: The cytokine responses to mitogenic activators of PBMC isolated from patients with FM were significantly lower than those of healthy individuals, implying that cell-mediated immunity is impaired in FM patients.

This novel cytokine assay reveals unique and valuable immunologic traits, which, when combined with clinical patterns, can offer a diagnostic methodology in FM.

Hi, As I am a Fobro sufferer, I wish the Researchers would look Beyond the Symptoms and try to Investigate what is making our Bodies weakening to the point of having problems of "immunologic, hematologic, or neurological problems" !. I say what I have personally experienced is that my System is slowly weakening to the point of suffering from any of these 3 symptoms. What I was told several years ago is that Fibro" is caused from certain Chemicals from Glands (I think they are in the Head) are not producing what the body needs to maintain our Muscles and other Systems in our Body,(a little like Diabetic sufferers), there for weakening our Bodies to suffer these other Problems. I know the Fibro has sloooowwwlllyyy decreased my abilities of Strength, Thought, Muscle tone (making me suffer with Pain & Fatigue too) and the Ability of my body to Renew its self of Energy, It's like my System is Slowly Dw

Fibro Sufferer

Posted by: GayleMMJan 15, 2013

Hi, As I am a Fobro sufferer, I wish the Researchers would look Beyond the Symptoms and try to Investigate what is making our Bodies weakening to the point of having problems of "immunologic, hematologic, or neurological problems" !. I say what I have personally experienced is that my System is slowly weakening to the point of suffering from any of these 3 symptoms. What I was told several years ago is that Fibro" is caused from certain Chemicals from Glands (I think they are in the Head) are not producing what the body needs to maintain our Muscles and other Systems in our Body,(a little like Diabetic sufferers), there for weakening our Bodies to suffer these other Problems. I know the Fibro has sloooowwwlllyyy decreased my abilities of Strength, Thought, Muscle tone (making me suffer with Pain & Fatigue too) and the Ability of my body to Renew its self of Energy, It's like my System is Slowly Dw

Fibro Sufferer

Posted by: GayleMMJan 15, 2013

Sorry my Page Glitched, Which ended up in sending 3 messages of the same, Any way I was starting to Ramble on!. I was about to Finnish by saying,(My system is Slowly Dwindling, Which makes me More Susceptible to these 3 types of problems !!. Syncerely, Gayle MM

Fibro Sufferer

Posted by: GayleMMJan 15, 2013

Hi, As I am a Fobro sufferer, I wish the Researchers would look Beyond the Symptoms and try to Investigate what is making our Bodies weakening to the point of having problems of "immunologic, hematologic, or neurological problems" !. I say what I have personally experienced is that my System is slowly weakening to the point of suffering from any of these 3 symptoms. What I was told several years ago is that Fibro" is caused from certain Chemicals from Glands (I think they are in the Head) are not producing what the body needs to maintain our Muscles and other Systems in our Body,(a little like Diabetic sufferers), there for weakening our Bodies to suffer these other Problems. I know the Fibro has sloooowwwlllyyy decreased my abilities of Strength, Thought, Muscle tone (making me suffer with Pain & Fatigue too) and the Ability of my body to Renew its self of Energy, It's like my System is Slowly Dw

immune/neurological

Posted by: KerryKJan 14, 2013

There is no dichotomy between neurological and immunological causes of disease. MS is a good example of a neurological illness caused by an immune system mistake. Good research. Thankyou.

Annesse Brockley & Kristin Urdiales wrote "Autoimmune The Cause and The Cure," second edition May 2012. Very enlightening with references to more than 300 scientific studies. Available on the Fibromyalgia Coalition website or from Amazon.

When I was much younger and my doctor ran the usual tests when I was pregnant the one test that always had him baffled was the blood tests that indicated that I had no immunity to Rubella. I even took my baby book in and showed him where my mother had kept a very detailed record of the number of times I had endured Rubella and Mumps. And yes, it was medically diagnosed RUBELLA, not some other lesser form of measles. The common rule of thumb is that you can only get Rubella once in your life and you will also have some form of immunity imparted to your system when that one case occurs... maybe for the majority it works that way but I am not one of the majority. And a normal pregnancy for me is ELEVEN MONTHS not 9... it runs in my family. I had 3 Eleven month pregnancies. I have had Rubella at least 7 times, Mumps at least 5 times on both sides and 3 times each for just one side at a time. Fibro has done a number on my immune system. There is no doubt. So why isn't the scientific community looking into the root cause of the immune problem? Our whole system is in hyper drive in everyway but in protecting us from the nasty illnesses that we should have immunity from. And it is over sensitive to things that should not be a problem... our own hormones, normal foods, etc. There has to be a small component that links it all together that you are missing.